The Yungdrung , the symbol of Bön.
The Yungdrung was carved in rocks,already during the Late Bronze Age (1000–700 BCE) and Iron Age (ca. 700–100 BCE).
John is doing excellent field work, to make Bön more clear.

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By:
John Vincent Bellezza

THE SWASTIKA:

The counterclockwise swastika (g.yung drung) is the quintessential symbol of Yungdrung Bön, as well as an epithet for the religion itself.

Numerous adherents, deities, sites, and temples are called swastika in Yungdrung Bön. The swastika is also a referent for many of its doctrines.

For instance, religious heroes are called the ‘impeccable beings of the swastika’ (g.yung drung sems dpa’), the enlightened form is referred to as g.yung drung sku, and the path to liberation is the g.yung

Prominent antecedents of Yungdrung Bön drung grub lam. The Yungdrung Bön expression for enduring good
health and longevity is ‘swastika of life’ (tshe yi g.yung drung). The swastika is of course also a key symbol in Buddhism (oriented clockwise) and Tibetan folk religion (oriented in both directions).

Rock art swastikas in Upper Tibet face in both directions and range in execution from crudely scrawled to adeptly drawn. Relying on inductive means of chronological analysis, it appears that early examples date to the Late Bronze Age (1000–700 BCE) and Iron Age (ca. 700–100 BCE), and continued to be made in the Protohistoric period (ca. 100 BCE to 650 CE), Early Historic period (ca. 650–1000 CE) and Vestigial period (ca. 1000–1300 CE).

Thus, painted and carved swastikas span a wide spectrum of time, ranging from the initial stages of Tibetan civilization to the time of the empire and finally to the termination of the great rock art tradition in Tibet in the early centuries of the second millennium CE. I have documented close to 300 swastikas in Upper Tibetan rock art (petroglyphs and pictographs), making it the most common sign or symbol (an abstraction encapsulating philosophical, ritualistic mythic,or mystical forms of understanding).

These swastikas carved and painted on stone surfaces come in diverse styles (bold, wispy, silhouetted, outlined, etc.) and sizes (5 cm to 70 cm in height), and occur in isolation, in conjunction with other symbols, and as part of scenes featuring ritual monuments, animals and anthropomorphs (figures in human form). Swastikas in the rock art of Upper Tibet, depending on the pictorial context, appear to have had diverse functions comprised of cosmological, fertility, apotropaic, benedictory, doctrinal, and sectarian elements.